Australian police delay release of survey on racism

The release of a research paper providing evidence that Indian students in Melbourne feel racially targeted was delayed by the Australian police.

The survey conducted by Victoria University will be reviewed by the police in 60 days and the paper will be released Feb 16. It was earlier scheduled to be released in November.

The project was launched in June last year by the university as a "fast-track attempt" to gather survey and interview evidence from students and community stakeholders, The Australian reported.

The VU administration said that it was waiting for police approval as the participation of police was significant for a comprehensive and detailed report.

The university would have preferred to release the report earlier but felt it was important to have participation of police, said VU acting vice-chancellor Linda Rosenman.

"There was never any pressure on Victoria University to amend or alter our findings," she said.

Senior Sergeant Simon Foster of the Victoria Police research coordinating committee said the 210-page report was too long and had to be reviewed by different areas of the organisation.

"When Victoria Police agrees to provide information, data or access to interview members for external research projects, they are given a 60-day period to review the draft report and provide feedback," he said.

Terming the delay as "unfortunate and suspicious" Gautam Gupta, founder of the Federation of Indian Students of Australia, said that the community members had been facing even worse situation on the ground.

"Now we are talking about a six-month old report when the situation has deteriorated," he said, adding that there was "enough evidence out in the street" that Indians were living in fear of being targeted.

Last updated on Feb 10^th, 2010 at 08:45 am IST--IANS